Security bungles spark fresh calls for inquiry

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The escape from Australia of a man charged with shooting at a Sydney police station and ASIO's failure to return phone calls from terrorist Jack Roche have triggered new Opposition calls for a major review of national security.

As the Government absorbed news of Saleh Jamal's subsequent arrest in Lebanon on fresh terrorism charges, Opposition Leader Mark Latham called again for a royal commission into Australia's intelligence agencies to examine the claims of failures that emerged during Roche's trial.

Roche said he tried to warn ASIO in July 2000 of the activities of al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah. Mr Latham said it was a major concern that ASIO failed to return Roche's calls.

"It adds to the long list of concerns about intelligence capacity in this country," Mr Latham said. "If things have . . . gone wrong in the past, we can't reverse any of that but we've got to get it right for the future. The war against terror is primarily an intelligence war and we can't afford mistakes."

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Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said ASIO had acknowledged the mistake and a thorough internal investigation was carried out two years ago.

Jamal, arrested in Lebanon last week, was on bail in NSW when he fled this year with a stolen or borrowed passport.

Jamal is wanted in Australia for skipping bail after being charged with firing an automatic rifle at Lakemba police station in November 1998.

He appeared in court in March to face seven charges before fleeing.

Mr Ruddock said the escape raised concerns about airport security, although Australia had better border protection than most countries.

Labor's spokesman on homeland security, Robert McClelland, said the fact that Mr Ruddock spent much of his time last week dealing with issues such as gay marriage while so much was going on in the security area demonstrated that he had too much on his plate.

Labor believed one minister should oversee all national security issues. When something went wrong, it would be clear which minister should resign.

Prime Minister John Howard said the mishandling of the Roche calls was a serious error but ASIO had acknowledged and dealt with it. "I can say that I've got a lot of confidence in Dennis Richardson, the director-general, and . . . in the security agencies generally," he said.